Q&A

Aubrey Plaza on Zombies, Parks and Rec’s Last Season, and Chris Pratt’sGuardians of the Galaxy Success

This month Aubrey Plaza, the deadpan darling of Parks and Recreation, proves her actorly range spans far beyond the eye-rolling requirements of her best-known character, April Ludgate. In the indie drama About Alex, a modern-day homage to The Big Chill, in theaters today, Plaza plays a tax attorney and aspiring chef who reunites with her college friends (played by Max Greenfield, Maggie Grace, Max Minghella, and more) over a long weekend after one of them (played by Jason Ritter) attempts suicide. In the other, the surprisingly poignant relationship comedy Life After Beth, Plaza stars front and center as a teenage girl who comes back to life as a zombie after a fatal snakebite. Earlier this week, we spoke to Plaza about both films, her hopes for the last season of Parks and Recreation, and why Internet users should watch their backs.

In the spirit of playing a zombie in Life After Beth, you’ve been tweeting out photos of yourself biting different celebrities. What does Vin Diesel taste like?

Mango and tequila.

In Life After Beth, your character is run over by a car and has zombie sex in a children’s playground during the daytime. What was the most fun scene for you to film?

The most fun for me was at the end of a movie when I am a full-on zombie, because that was really liberating to just act like an insane flesh-eating monster.

There is also a scene where someone chains you to a stove, hoping to contain you, but your zombie strength allows you to simply get up and walk around carrying the stove, even going on a hike. How did you make hauling a stove on your back look so effortless?

The stove was half-fake, half-real and then there were some special effects involved. But the stove was really heavy, and I injured myself the first time I tried to lift it and I tore my abdominal wall. I was injured so they had to rig the stove up on this harness that kind of acted like a hiking backpack. That’s how I got it up the mountain.

We were in Griffith Park though and there were random people walking by, and they were not expecting to see a zombie with a stove on her back for sure.

You go from playing a full-fledged, stove-toting zombie to playing a tax attorney who secretly aspires to become a chef in About Alex. What appealed to you about that part?

I loved the script and [writer/director] Jesse [Zwick]’s writing. It did appeal to me to play a character closer to my actual age. I tend to get cast in roles that are much younger than I really am. It was nice to have a character that was going through things in their life that I’ve experienced.

The movie is a conscious homage to The Big Chill and other 80s movies. Which 80s-movie character do you relate to most?

Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club. I relate more to Janeane Garofolo and Winona Ryder in Reality Bites, but that was early 90s. That’s one of my favorite movies.

Your character cooks for her friends. Do you cook in real life?

Before I went to film in New York, I did a practice run-through of making scallop risotto, [one of the meals she makes in the film]. I had never made risotto before, so I wanted to understand it because making risotto is actually a whole process. It is almost an art, because of the timing of it. And I didn’t want to have to think about what I was doing too much when we were shooting because there were already too many distractions. I wanted it to be second nature.

And when I went upstate to shoot the movie, I kind of made a point, when [the cast] got up there, to cook a lot. I cooked the first night we were there. I made everyone some Italian food. I tried to cook as much as I could to create that energy. The first night I cooked spaghetti and chicken piccata.

Between you and your Parks and Rec husband Chris Pratt, who starred in Guardians of the Galaxy this summer, the Ludgate-Dwyers are having a pretty busy movie summer.

I’m so proud of my T.V. husband. From the moment I met him, I knew he was going to be, like, the next Brad Pitt. He’s so handsome, so kind, and such a talented actor. There’s just nowhere for him to go except straight to the top. I’m only shocked that it hasn’t happened already. I’m just so excited for the world to see him if they haven’t already. Because he’s brilliant and I love him and now he has rock-hard abs. Which is just a bonus.

It seems like the Internet has a big crush on Chris . . . do you feel like it is encroaching on your territory at all?

I have major jealousy [issues] but we start shooting Parks and Recreation next week so I am glad to have him all to myself because if anyone tries to get with him, I will destroy them.

In the past, you’ve said that you’d love for April to be pregnant on the show. Do you have any inkling of whether that will happen on the last season of the show?

I haven’t read anything yet. All I know is that it is a continuation of the last episode of Season 6, where you see that Leslie and Ben have triplets. So there are already a lot of babies going on, so I’m not sure if April will be on the baby train, but who knows? I think there are going to be some major changes and updates to all of our characters. I would not be sad if we had children. But maybe we’ll be able to see them babysitting Leslie’s kids and that will be even more fun.

What kind of mom do you think April would be?

I think April will be great with kids. I think kids are kind of drawn to weirdo adults that don’t treat them like babies. I find that in my real life—that if you talk to a kid like an adult they tend to like you more. I think April has a witchy quality that will work for children.

You’ve been a long-time fan of Hillary Clinton and have incorporated her in a few of your projects—you went to a Clinton rally on The Jeanie Tate Show, you shared a few scenes with a photo of her in The To-Do List. And I saw you that you recently met her at a book signing. How was that?

I did. It was very brief but she signed my book and I got an actual picture with her, not just the Katy Perry photobomb picture. I’ve always been a huge fan of her and it was just so cool to be in her presence. I love listening to her speak. I felt very lucky to get to meet her personally.

Did she write anything cool in your book?

She wrote, “I’m going to run for president in 2016. Don’t tell anyone.” Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that.